Fireball rarely gets SWEDISH CARS… so in honor of tomorrow’s incoming Vlog (which is a sick Swedish Wagon!), here’s a playlist of the best sexy swedes from the past. DO IT!

And check out today’s RIDE! A 1969 SAAB SONETT!

It’s rare when you get to salivate over a Swedish classic. And if you didn’t know I was talking about a car, this first line would really catch your attention. But, since it is a car — in fact a 1969 Saab Sonett owned by Farhad Fozounmayeh — you’re in for a treat. Welcome to today’s VLOGROCKET.

Overseeing the West Coast ad operations for “Time” magazine and TIME.com, Farhad has a very detailed job. And you’d think that he’d be the kind of guy that would want a detail-oriented car. But this lil’ Swedish wonder is actually very simple.

When we met at the bluffs to shoot the car, I got a chance to see the simplicity of its V4 motor which put out a whopping 60 horsepower. For it’s near original state, the car was relaxed and exuded a type of driving excitement that really just meant pure fun.

We weren’t going to drive fast, race around corners or launch off the line. All we did was putt up PCH to get a photo.

But doing just that in this car was like stepping into an original Corgi toy. It was so simple that you could say, like a kid, “Wow, the doors and bonnet actually open!”

“I’ve had the Sonett for about a year,” Farhad said. “It turned out to be a family heirloom. My dad, who is also a car fanatic, passed it on to me and I look forward to someday giving it to my kids.”

But why this car?

“I love rare and unique cars. This one has an interesting history and has made some history. Only a little more than 600 were ever made for this model year. One of the first cars to have 3-pt seat belts, a roll bar and high back seats to prevent whiplash.”

Yeah, that’s just what I’d want in my toys if I were a kid. Can you see the packaging? “Real life-like roll bar and action seats!” So cool.

This car is so quirky and there are a lot of unique things about it like the hood being the entire front half and having an offset bulge or the “faux hatchback.” Basically, no hatchback but a small door like a cupboard. Funky. You could slide your surfboard in there if it was three feet long.

“The best part is that it’s the ultimate conversation piece,” Farhad said. “Most vintage or classics people are familiar with … They take a look, have a few comments and move on. With the Sonett model — especially the 67-69 models — most people have never seen or even heard of it.

Ninety five percent of people come up asking, ‘What in the world is this thing?’ The other 5 percent have never seen one and only know about it through magazines or books. Met some good people and have had many fun conversations.”

Farhad has a blast with this bugger on weekend drives in Malibu because, from Oxnard to Santa Monica, (the best order to do it) “It’s hands down, the best strip to cruise on earth.”

I’d agree 100 percent. But there’s one thing I’d add. The joy of driving this car pales in comparison to the joy it brings others as it cruises by. Not knowing what it is stirs up a positive curiosity and desire to hear a story.

And the stories are truly the essence of driving.

And lastly, although Farhad’s Sonett is simple, his taste in movie cars is a little more technical, being James Bond’s Lotus Turbo Esprit.

“My dad was a huge Bond fan so I saw all the 007 films growing up. These were the Roger Moore years (my favorite Bond) and he had a couple of different versions of the Esprit through his films (my favorite model was in ‘For Your Eyes Only’).

But they were all great and I loved the design.”

Like I said, it’s the stories. What’s yours?

Congrats, Farhad. You and your super cool Saab are this week’s Ride of the Week!

Like this:

Along with filming this week’s 5MINUTE DRIVE, we also managed to wrangle a drive up to Solvang in the super cool XC60 Volvo. Being a blast to drive, we got there in no time and had a day fun including (but not limited to…) pastries, chocolate and finally landing by accident, at the Firestone Vineyard. (We were headed to Zaca Mesa and made too many lefts.) What an awesome place! Also stopped at a really neato Pumpkin Patch. (Kathie has plans.)

Cars are for bringing experiences and Volvo knows this, but you have to just get in and drive. Stop worrying about where you’re gonna go and just GO!GET LOST! Life is about discovery!

Like this:

So… there I was, sloppin’ in some Taco fixins when there appeared a flash in the sky! A bolt from BEYOND! A thunderous crashing of Sveedish Flair! And then… it appeared. Ooooooo….

BAM! Right in front of my eyes, the all new 2014 Polestar VOLVO XC60 R-Design snapped into existence from the ether. Why? Well, because I drive coolness and the Universe wouldn’t send me anything BUT, duh. (Yea, that’s funny, I just said BUTTduh.)

So… for the weekend, I’ll be rockin’ this ride from Scandinavia through the Bu, in search of other Swedish things. (Yes, more than meatballs… and No, there’s no Ikea here.) But… I hear the Swedes make awesome chocolate and there HAS to be some somewhere. Got any ideas?

BIG THANKS to the Gods of Scandinavia for flickin’ this car my way, and same goes to the peeps of Volvo for makin’ it in white. It’s pearly…

From WIKI… Volvo Cars (Swedish: Volvo personvagnar), stylized as VOLVO in the logo, is a Swedish luxury vehicle manufacturer established in 1927 and headquartered on Hisingen, in Gothenburg.

As of 2016, 61.4% of its 31,416 worldwide employees were still in Sweden.

Although often conflated with the Swedish heavy truck and construction equipment conglomerate AB Volvo, also based in Gothenburg, the two firms have been independent since AB Volvo sold Volvo Cars to Ford Motor Company in 1999.

Volvo Cars has been owned since 2010 by the Geely Holding Group, a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company. Both AB Volvo and Volvo Cars share the Volvo logo and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum.

Volvo Cars was founded as a subsidiary of the ball bearing manufacturer SKF. When AB Volvo was introduced on the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935, SKF sold most of the shares in the company.

Volvo Cars manufactures and markets sport utility vehicles, station wagons, sedans and compact executive sedans. With approximately 2,300 local dealers from around 100 national sales companies worldwide, Volvo Cars’ largest markets are China, the United States, Sweden, and the other countries in the European Union.

In July 2017, Volvo announced that new models launched from 2019 will be fully electric or hybrid-electric, heralding the end of production of nearly a century of Volvo vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.

Like this:

A full day if Malibu fun sends Fireball and Kathie all over the place. Caffe Luxxe, Traffic, an amazing Malibu Home and into the hills to drive the 2017 Volvo S90.

About the VOLVO S90 from Wiki… The Volvo S90 is an executive sedan manufactured and marketed by Swedish automaker Volvo Cars since 2016.

Before its reveal, the first official pictures of the S90 were revealed on Wednesday, 2 December 2015. The S90 was unveiled to the public in January 2016 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan.

The S90’s design was well-received, winning the Production Car Design of the Year award for 2015. While not a direct successor to the second generation S80, the S90 replaces it as the flagship sedan in Volvo’s lineup.

Several trim levels are available, ranging from Momentum to Inscription. In July 2016 an optional, cosmetic R-Design package was announced. A long wheelbase version was announced and will be available in the United States.

The S90 and V90 are only available with 2.0-litre, 4 cylinder petrol and diesel engines from the VEA family (DRIVe). The more powerful petrol engines are compound charged, as is the plug-in hybrid variant called the T8.

The D5 diesel engine features Volvo’s new[23] PowerPulse[24] technology that is designed to eliminate turbo lag as well as an i-Art injection system.

With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier. After the war’s end, the federal government re-established forts such as Fort Dearborn (in 1816—now the site is within Chicago) and army patrols west of the Mississippi diminished the threat from Amerindian raids, so settlers were able to move into all of Illinois from the eastern and southern emigrant trails.

Mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U.S. had exhausted most timber stands close to the established cities creating a hard felt first energy crisis by the late 1790s, and after 1818 the industrial revolution was being fueled by new canals such as the Lehigh Canal feeding the furnaces of the rapidly industrializing east coast. In the same year of 1818, Illinois achieved statehood and its growth, as yet untroubled by the speed of as yet unrefined railway technology, would be fueled by the new religion of industrialized forward thinking.

After construction of the Erie Canal with increasing traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.[8]John Deere‘s invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois’ rich prairie into some of the world’s most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting new immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other mid-western states from the tyranny of water transport; no longer was a location near a river or canal a need to ship bulk goods.

By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants, from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the city’s famous jazz and blues cultures.[9][10]